Please help.
I am in a big dillema.
A couple of months ago I received a notice from the Louisiana Department of Revenue saying I owed back taxes on a S-Corp that had been inactive since 2005 but had not been disolved. I contacted my accountant and she prepared the state and federal tax forms for the 2005 - 2009 years and told me to send those in, which I did. The issue with the state has been cleared up. Now I'm receiving notices from the IRS stating I owe them money for filing Late. The penalty for just 1 year is quite substantial.

I have my accountant working to try to get this abated, but as of now, the IRS has not responded to her requests and the interest keep building up.

Do I owe this?
I saw on another post on this site that I don't need to file federal returns for an inactive s corp. Is this still the case?
Or did my accountant make a mistake by telling me to send in the federal returns late?

Regretably, this appears to be true!

Per the IRS, "For tax years beginning after 2009, the late filing penalty for an S corporation return is $195 for each month or part of a month (up to 12 months) the return is late (or does not contain the required information) multiplied by the total number of persons who were shareholders in the corporation during any part of the corporation's tax year.

But, the IRS has also stated that "No penalty will be imposed if the corporation shows that the late filing was due to reasonable cause."

My hope is that your accountant has demonstrated sufficient reasonable cause to enable the IRS to abate these late filing penalties.

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